Balance of Payments Statistics
Methodology (BPM5)
Table of Contents:
A.
B.
C.
D.
A.
Introduction
Individual Country Data
World and Regional Tables
Methodological Notes
Introduction
The BOPS (Balance of Payments Statistics) CD-ROM has adapted the three parts
of the Balance of Payments Statistics Yearbook (BOPSY); therefore, it
contains balance of payments and international investment position data of
individual countries, jurisdictions, and other reporting entities; regional
and world totals for major components of the balance of payments; and
descriptions of methodologies, compilation practices, and data sources used
by selected reporting countries. In addition to containing the corresponding
series and tables within BOPSY, denominated in U.S. dollars, the BOPS CD-ROM
contains data as reported by the balance of payments correspondents to the
Fund. These latter data are typically denominated in national currency.
Conversion is performed on the basis of average U.S. dollar/national currency
exchange rates for balance of payments data and on end-of-period exchange
rates for international investment position data.
Balance of payments data are presented on the BOPS CD-ROM in accordance with
the standard components of the fifth edition of the Balance of Payments
Manual, BPM5. Similarly, international investment position (IIP) data are
presented in the BPM5 format, and the country notes present detailed reviews
of the methodologies, compilation practices, and sources of data for most of
the countries included in this CD-ROM. The BPM5, published by the Fund in
September 1993, introduced a number of methodological changes in the
compilation of balance of payments data. These changes are described in
detail in chapter I of the BPM5. In addition, data are accompanied by a set
of data codes for trade-in-services items from the Manual on Statistics of
International Trade in Services. The structure of these codes is explained in
a separate file entitled BOP.rtf under the Print_Me file directory.
Data conversion work undertaken by Fund staff has made possible the
presentation in the BPM5 format of both historical data from the Fund’s
database and more recent statistics reported by those member countries who
are still compiling their data in the format of the fourth edition of the
Balance of Payments Manual (BPM4). In 1995, the Fund staff developed formulas
to transform reported balance of payments data for each country in the Fund’s
database to approximate the BPM5 methodology and presentation. Converted data
for each reporting country were sent to the respective authorities for
review, and their comments were incorporated in the new BPM5 database. In
l996, the Fund staff, in collaboration with country authorities, completed a
similar conversion of the BPM4 IIP data into the BPM5 presentation. In
principle, the IIP of a country is a balance sheet of its stock of external
financial assets and liabilities.
The notes about the methodologies, compiling practices, and data sources of
reporting countries are based largely on information provided to the Fund by
-2these countries. These notes can be retrieved after a Country Table selection
from the directory tree within the Browser and can also be found in the
Print_Me directory in the BOPCTYNOTES.rtf file. The descriptions are intended
to enhance users’ understanding of the coverage, as well as the limitations,
of individual country data published on this CD-ROM. They are also designed
to inform compilers of data sources and practices used by their counterparts
in other countries.
B.
Individual Country Data
“Country” in the BOPS CD-ROM does not always refer to a territorial entity
that is a state as understood by international law and practice; the term
also covers some nonsovereign territorial entities for which statistical data
are provided internationally on a separate basis.
For most countries, balance of payments data are presented in both analytic
and standard presentations. As its name implies, the analytic presentation is
an analytical summary of the more detailed data contained in the standard
presentation. Balance of payments components in the analytic presentation are
arrayed to highlight the financing items (the reserves and related items).
The standard presentation shows data displayed in the standard components
described in the BPM5. For countries for which IIP statistics are available,
the data are presented in the IIP section.
B.1 Analytic Presentation
In the analytic presentation, balance of payments components are classified
into five major data categories (groups A through E), which the Fund regards
as useful for analyzing balance of payments developments uniformly. The
selected groups, however, should not be considered to reflect the Fund’s
recommendation about the analytic approach appropriate for every country.
Other analytical presentations could be arrayed by regrouping the standard
components in other ways to take into account the special circumstances of a
specific country or to serve particular analytical requirements.
Note that the figures shown in both the analytic and standard presentation
differ for balances of the current account, the capital account, and the
financial account for some countries. This is because in the analytic
presentation, certain transactions under these accounts are excluded and
reclassified as “exceptional financing.” The excluded transactions are
grouped under reserves and related items. “Exceptional financing” refers to
transactions undertaken by the authorities to finance balance of payments
needs, including such items as external borrowing, payment arrears, and debt
forgiveness. Exceptional financing does not include reserves.
B.2
Standard Presentation
The standard components of BPM5, shown in the standard presentation, list a
more detailed classification of goods and services than appears in BPM4. The
designated “capital and financial account” has separate components for the
“capital” and the “financial account.” Under the “financial account,”
components are classified by types of investment (i.e., direct investment,
portfolio investment, financial derivatives, other investment, and reserve
assets), assets/liabilities, domestic sectors (monetary authorities, general
government, banks, and other sectors), and original maturity.
-3B.3 International Investment Position
IIP data are arrayed in accordance with the standard components for IIP, as
set forth in the BPM5.
Although the classification of the IIP components is consistent with that of
the financial account of the balance of payments as shown in the standard
presentation, a number of differences exist between the two. As mentioned
earlier, IIP data reflect a country’s external financial assets and
liabilities at a specific point. Therefore, the basic presentation of the IIP
components is provided under two general categories, namely, assets and
liabilities, as opposed to the functional types of investment (direct
investment, portfolio investment, financial derivatives, other investment,
and reserve assets) shown in the standard presentation.
Also, IIP data reflect a country’s position at the end of the reporting
period, as opposed to transactions during the period shown in the standard
presentation. Furthermore, unlike the standard presentation, which shows the
value of financial transactions over a period, the valuation of a country’s
IIP reflects the value of financial transactions, valuation changes, and
other adjustments at the end of the reporting period. The net IIP is derived
by taking the difference between the value of reported external financial
assets and that of reported external financial liabilities.
For some countries that cannot produce a complete IIP statement, this section
includes a partial IIP statement based on data reported to the Fund. In
general, these partial statements include data on international reserves, the
international position of the banking system, and the public debt. In this
connection, it should be noted that totals for assets and liabilities refer
only to reported data. Because of these data limitations, a country’s IIP
statement should be read in conjunction with the notes on methodologies,
compilation practices, and data sources for that particular country. As
countries collect more stock data on direct and portfolio investment
positions and on trade credits, the coverage of the IIP for these countries
will be expanded in subsequent volumes of BOPSY and the BOPS CD-ROM. Readers
may refer to Chapter XXIII of the BPM5 for a full discussion of the concept
of international investment position.
External debt is not a separate component of the IIP but can be derived by
summing up the liability positions other than financial derivatives, equity
securities, and equity capital and reinvested earnings on foreign direct
investment, which according to External Debt Statistics: Guide for Compilers
and Users (2003) are not debt instruments.
B.4 Credits and Debits
In both the analytic and standard presentations, the transactions data are
shown as gross credit or gross debit entries in the current and capital
accounts, and as net credit or net debit entries (to reflect net changes in
liabilities and net changes in assets) in the financial account. Credit
entries, gross or net, are positive (but without a plus sign), and debit
entries, gross or net, are negative (with a minus sign). Thus, decreases in
assets and increases in liabilities (credits) are shown as positive, and
increases in assets and decreases in liabilities (debits) are shown as
negative.
-4B.5 Nil or Unavailable Entries
It is frequently difficult to discern in data reported by countries whether
missing numbers are not available or are zero or insignificant. In the BOPS
CD-ROM, “....” indicates either unreported data or estimated data.
B.6 A Note on the Components of Income and Other Investment
In the standard presentation, the data reported by certain countries under
“income” and “other investment” are at a level of aggregation that does not
allow all the individual components within this category to be separately
identified. In these cases, therefore, the aggregate data for certain
subcategories cannot be derived by summing the components for these
subcategories. The same principle applies to “other investment” shown in the
IIP.
Previously, in Volumes 46 through 49 of the BOPSY, data for "other
investment" (assets and liabilities) used to be shown under "long-term" and
"short-term." Starting with Volume 50, data for "other investment" (assets
and liabilities) for monetary authorities, general government, banks, and
other sectors are shown as totals (of long- and short-term financing) and as
"of which: short-term." (For loans, monetary authorities, the data are shown
as totals, as "of which: use of Fund credit and loans from the Fund," and as
"of which: short-term.") However, in Annex II in the BOPSY, the standard
presentation has not been modified.
B.7 Rounding of Figures
Most data in the tables are expressed in units of one million; it should not
be assumed that any table showing smaller units necessarily contains more
accurate figures. The unit is chosen to present the figures conveniently. Because of the calculation routines used, rounding differences may occur
between an aggregate and the sum of its components.
B.8 Currency Conversion
Most of the balance of payments data reported to the Fund are expressed in
national currencies or in U.S. dollars, although some countries report
certain data in SDRs. To facilitate comparisons among countries, all balance
of payments statements published in the BOPSY and in the BOPS CD-ROM are
expressed in U.S. dollars. As mentioned previously, the BOPS CD-ROM also
contains data in national currency as reported by member countries. In
addition, all countries’ reported data on transactions with the Fund and
transactions in SDRs are replaced with data obtained from the Fund records,
which are kept in SDRs. This information is, in turn, converted to U.S.
dollars.
-5For countries that do not report in U.S. dollars, data are converted using
the country conversion rates shown at the bottom of the analytic presentation
table in the BOPS CD-ROM and in Table 1 in BOPSY. These rates are normally
the average exchange rates for a country for the relevant period taken from
the International Financial Statistics (IFS). For example, the IFS pages for
the Netherlands contain line “rf,” giving average rates for guilders per U.S.
dollar. Conversions of transactions data from SDRs into U.S. dollars are made
at the rates shown in line “sb” of the IFS pages for the United States. For
countries reporting quarterly data in national currencies, annual U.S. dollar
totals are obtained by aggregating the quarterly U.S. dollar figures. For
countries that do not report IIP data in U.S. dollars, data are converted
using the line “ae.” These rates are the end-of-period exchange rates for a
country for the relevant period, taken from the IFS.
More information on the exchange rates used may be found in the introduction
to IFS, Section 1, or on the IFS CD-ROM in the file entitled INT.rtf.
C. World and Regional Tables
This section aggregates country data by major balance of payments components.
The user should note that this aggregation is done only once a year and that
the aggregates included in the BOPS CD-ROM correspond to the most recent
issue of BOPSY. For each component, data for countries, country groups, and
the world are provided. In addition to data reported by countries as shown in
the analytic and standard presentations, the tables in this section also
include data for international organizations. 1
Missing data have been estimated for countries by Fund staff to the extent
possible. For the balance of payments, the estimation procedure is based
largely on the use of the WEO database. Data published in BOPSY may differ
from balance of payments data published in the WEO mainly due to timing and
coverage differences (for example: BOPSY Part 2 includes data on
international organizations).
For the IIP, the estimates for nonreporting economies are derived from the
Research Department’s External Wealth of Nations (EWN) database, which
includes data for some 180 economies. Data from this database are used
extensively by IMF staff for multilateral surveillance and for research, and
these data are also in the public domain. They are updated and validated by
the Research Department on a continuing basis.
External assets and liabilities in EWN are estimated from a variety of
sources. Typically official IIP data are used for countries that report such
estimates. For countries and years for which IIP data are not reported, the
data are estimated using alternative sources. These include, for example: (i)
BIS reported data and partner-country BIS data (for foreign assets), (ii) IFS
data on banks’ and nonbank financial institutions’ foreign assets, (iii) IFS
data for official reserves, (iv) Joint External Debt Hub, the World Bank’s
Global Development Finance, and the WEO databases for external debt
liabilities, (v) cumulative financial flows (adjusted for valuation changes)—
financial flows are taken from STA published data as well as WEO (when STA
data are not available), (vi) UNCTAD data on foreign direct investment (FDI),
(vii) Coordinated Portfolio Investment Survey data for portfolio investment,
From 1996 forward, the data for international organizations include data
provided by the European Economic Community.
1
-6and (viii) partner-country data from national sources for both FDI and
portfolio equity assets and liabilities.
The following outlines the methodology used to gapfill balance of payments
data. With regard to goods and services transactions, where data gaps exist
after the latest year of reporting to the Fund, estimates are made by
applying the growth rates derived from the WEO for the missing year(s) to the
latest reported annual data (debits and credits). When the data gaps are in
respect of years prior to the latest reported data to STA, the WEO data are
inserted to complete the series.
Net WEO data series are used to estimate income, current transfers, and the
capital account. The estimation procedure for income and current transfers
carries forward the latest reported values for the balance of payments
series, compares WEO and balance of payments net figures, and then adjusts
balance of payments credit and debit figures so that both balance of payments
and WEO net figures are the same. Where there are gaps in the data prior to
the latest reported data, the net credit or the net debit figures from WEO
are inserted directly. To estimate the capital account, the net WEO series is
inserted directly, to credits if WEO shows a net credit and to debits if WEO
shows a net debit. With regard to most financial account transactions,
derived growth rates based on WEO data are used when there are gaps after the
latest year of reported data to the Fund. When the data gaps are in years
prior to the latest reported data to STA, and for missing reserves data, the
WEO data are inserted to complete the series. There are no estimations for
financial derivatives. Data on Fund transactions—for example, transactions in
SDRs and of the Fund's General Resources Account—are obtained from Fund
sources.
For the IIP, in some cases, neither reported data nor EWN data were available
for one or more years in the time series (almost all data gaps were for
2008). In these cases, estimates were derived using a relevant growth rate
(example: a regional growth rate). A small number of economies that have no
data available from STA or RES for the entire period are not included in the
published tables.
Estimates for missing data, which are included in regional and world totals,
are not shown for the individual countries concerned.
All tables of aggregates appearing in the section on world and regional data
are shown in the concept tree of the BOPS CD-ROM (except for the Tables E-1
and E-2). Table A-1 provides a summary of international transactions, showing
world totals of the major components of the balance of payments. Tables A-2
through A-5 present balances, by country, for the current, capital, and
financial accounts, as well as for errors and omissions. Each of these tables
includes a breakdown for international organizations, by country region, and
by country.
Tables B-1 through B-38 present world and regional totals, by country, of
major components of the balance of payments accounts.
Table C-1 presents "global discrepancies" in balance of payments statistics
by major components. Global discrepancies shown in the table refer to the
discrepancies between the sum of the debit and credit entries of
corresponding components reported by countries and estimated by the Fund
staff. For example, the global discrepancy shown for the trade balance
represents the difference between the global aggregate of trade surpluses for
goods and that of trade deficits reported on goods. In principle, under the
-7balance of payments convention, global aggregates for exports should equal
global aggregates for imports, and global trade surpluses should mirror
global trade deficits, with the global trade balance equal to zero. The same
principle applies to other balance of payments components shown in Table C-1.
For various reasons, however, countries generally do not correctly record all
transactions, or they classify corresponding transactions differently. Under
these circumstances, errors and omissions in the national data and
asymmetries (discrepancies) in the global statistics arise. Figures
presented in C-1 reflect such net global asymmetries for the different
balances. The net errors and omissions shown in the table represent the
difference between the global discrepancy figure for the current account and
that for the combined capital and financial accounts.
Within the current account, a negative global imbalance or discrepancy
indicates a net excess of recorded debits, which may reflect an underrecording of credits, an overstatement of debits, or both. A positive
discrepancy in the financial account suggests a net understatement of capital
outflows (increase in assets or decrease in liabilities) and/or a net
overstatement of recorded inflows (decrease in assets or increase in
liabilities).
The memorandum items of Table C-1 show the global discrepancies of certain
major components of the balance of payments as a proportion of the sum of
credits and debits of the category.
Tables D-1, D-2, and D-3 present exports and imports of goods and services
and the current account balance, respectively, as a percentage of gross
domestic product (GDP), information that is of general interest to data
users.
Table E-1 presents the Net IIP while E-2 shows Total Assets and Total
Liabilities.
D. Methodological Notes
The BOPS CD-ROM contains notes for countries for which the Fund staff have
received information. The notes, which can be viewed from the analytic
presentation, standard presentation, and IIP country tables in the BOPS CDROM, present descriptions of methodologies, compilation practices, and data
sources used by individual member countries in compiling their balance of
payments and international investment position (IIP) statements. These notes
are designed to facilitate readers’ use of the data presented in the BOPS CDROM to enhance their understanding of the data coverage, as well as the data
limitations. They are also intended to inform national balance of payments
compilers of the data sources and compilation practices used by their
counterparts in other countries; in this way, the reviews should help foster
cooperation and the exchange of ideas among national compilers, as well as
encourage them to improve their data.
The notes published in the BOPS CD-ROM are based largely on information
provided by the reporting countries. Consistent with the efforts undertaken
by the Fund staff in converting the Fund’s database on balance of payments
and international investment position statistics to conform with BPM5
presentations, the technical information provided by reporting countries has
been edited and reformatted to follow, as closely as possible, the BPM5
presentation and to provide a degree of standardization in their contents and
presentations. They have been reviewed by the respective countries and their
-8comments have been incorporated therein. The Fund is grateful to the
reporting countries for their contributions to the preparation of the
descriptions.
For most countries, the reviews are organized in two sections: a general
section and a specific one on balance of payments components. For countries
that also compile IIP data, an additional specific section on IIP data is
included.
The general section overviews a country’s major data sources and the key
methods (surveys, exchange records, international transaction reporting
systems, and others) that it uses to collect balance of payments data and,
where appropriate, international investment position statistics. The section
also discusses major government agencies and other institutions responsible
for and involved in the compilation. In addition, it states whether the data
are compiled under the methodology set forth in the fourth edition of the
Balance of Payments Manual (BPM4) or the fifth edition (BPM5); and in most
cases, it provides information on the country’s methods of disseminating the
data.
The specific sections are organized under the standard components of the BPM5
for balance of payments and international investment positions. For each of
the standard components, the reviews generally describe data sources, how the
data are compiled, the extent of the data coverage, and other data
limitations. The descriptions of methodology, for the most part, contain only
statements of deviations from the BPM4 or BPM5 methodology primarily used by
the country (as stated in the general section). Thus, the reader may assume,
where no definitions or classification details are given, that the
compilation of the item is consistent with the methodology described in the
appropriate section of the Balance of Payments Manual.